Hanoi & the world

Hanoi to celebrate Ireland’s National Day

St. Patrick’s Day will turn the Pen Monument in Hoan Kiem Lake green (Photo courtesy of the embassy)

The Pen Monument in Hoan
Kiem Lake in Hanoi is set to go green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day –
Ireland’s National Day on March 17, as the capital joins the Global Greening
Initiative for the second time.

The ‘greening’ ceremony will be held at 6pm and
will be followed by the Ireland Day event, a fun-filled free public event of
Irish cultural activities organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development
Studies (CSDS), a partner of the Embassy.

Minister of State for Food, Forestry and
Horticulture, Andrew Doyle, will represent the Government of Ireland at the St.
Patrick’s Day Celebrations in Vietnam, and the Traditional Irish Music Society
of University College Dublin (UCD Tradsoc) will present some of the best Irish
music and dance.

Every year on March 17, Ireland and its people
celebrate St Patrick’s Day. With up to 70 million people around the world
claiming Irish ancestry and many more friends of Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is
a worldwide celebration.

Since 2010 a very special project called
Ireland’s Global Greening Initiative has grown to become a significant
worldwide campaign in which landmark sites around the world ‘turn green’ to
mark St. Patrick’s Day.

This year on St Patrick’s Day, over 300 of the
world’s most famous landmarks (stadiums, statues, museums and towers) in over
32 countries around the world, such as the Empire State building in New York,
City Hall in London, and the Great Wall of China, will turn green for the day.

Over 10,000 Irish visitors travel to Vietnam
each year, and we have a resident Irish community of about 1,000 who are
particularly active in education and business. About 200 Vietnamese students
are studying in Ireland.-VNA